Special Reports

In-Depth Analysis and Investigative Reports

Cultural understanding

To Puerto Rico and back, Enchautegui knows diversity

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

By Dan Dilworth
Contributing writer

Noemi Enchautegui-de-Jesus was born in New York City, but moved to Puerto Rico when she was 3 years old. Her parents sent her and her brother to live with their grandparents she lived with their maternal grandparents; her brother with their paternal.

Her parents joined them in Puerto Rico a few years later.

Enchautegui lived in a rural town in Puerto Rico until she was 22, when she moved back to New York City. In 2001, she earned a doctorate in psychology at New York University.

She came to Syracuse in 2004 after spending three years in Michigan as a post-doctoral fellow with the national organization Family Research Consortium. She spent her last year in Michigan as a program evaluation researcher with a community organization.

She came to SU as a visiting assistant professor in the department of psychology, which she still holds along with her position as a senior research associate at SU's Bertonblatt Institute: Centers of Innovation on Disability.

I believed that for some, when they think about migrants ... technically Puerto Ricans aren't migrants when we come here. By that definition, they don't think we go through the process of culture shock that happens when you move to a new culture. But I think we do go through that.

Puerto Ricans are very diverse ... that is perhaps more important than the idea of culture shock. As an ethnicity, very diverse, there are different combinations of races, socioeconomic classes. There might be impression we're similar when really there is a lot of diversity.

What got you interested in psychology?

Human behavior, I'm curious about that. Why people do the things they do? At first when I was in middle school, I didn't know much about psychology. I read a description (of the study) in school ... it sounded very interesting. The way it was described was something along the lines of "human behavior." Later, I learned something about the different areas in psychology and that's how I got involved in community psychology. The field is interested in the science of people, but also interested in social problems and how to develop policies to address those problems.

If someone went to Puerto Rico, what would you want them to see?

Definitely the ocean, I love showing that; I love to see the ocean from the mountains. (There is) all the greenery and in the distance, you see this striking blue. It's very beautiful. That's something I miss from Puerto Rico, is the greenery.